Rowan University hosts Atlantic City evacuees while Irene rages

GLASSBORO — A group of evacuees on Saturday watched the news projected onto a wall of Rowan University’s cot-crowded Esby Gym, and most saw home.

A Fox News crew just then happened to be in Atlantic City, from where most of the Profs’ guests had been brought.

There were 1,084 in all, said Laura Steinmetz of the Gloucester and Salem County chapter of the American Red Cross, late Saturday morning.

The Rowan campus, designated as a Red Cross emergency shelter site, had absorbed shore area residents forced to evacuate because of then-impending Hurricane Irene. Guests were being kept in Esby and the nearby university Recreation Center.

Three Red Cross sites in Cumberland and Atlantic counties - the first in line to take those evacuees - had quickly filled up.

Inside Esby, guests wandered about the central hallway. To one side, the gymnasium with an elevated track was packed with green cots, as was the gym section with the Profs basketball court on the other side.

Occupying those cots or tooling around elsewhere were guests who were elderly, blind, in wheelchairs, toddlers, teens, young adults or infants.

Some had seeing eye dogs or other “service animals” for special needs - the only animals allowed in the shelter.

Some sat and read books, while others scrolled down or typed texts on their cell phone screens. Some just lay, seemingly dazed and exhausted, on their cots.

One small child lay awkwardly just beside his mother, his faced crinkled as he sobbed.

The guests had been at Rowan since about noon Friday, Steinmetz said.

“And they’ll be here until it’s safe for them to go back home,” she said.

But they wouldn’t be left to themselves. Rowan students had been stopping in to take children outside, at least before the rain began, to play soccer or otherwise entertain themselves on nearby sports fields.

“That’s exactly what they need,” Steinmetz said, “to get out and get some exercise.”

Students, faculty and staff had also helped in other ways - setting up cots, staying at night, keeping children entertained. Some had stayed for as many as 12 hours to lend a hand or offer comfort.

Steinmetz credited them, along with local agencies including Rowan public safety, Glassboro police, Gloucester County emergency services departments and others.

She said roughly two dozen or so Red Cross volunteers were on site Saturday morning. They and other helpers served meals as well.

A medical triage staffed by Red Cross doctors and nurses served those with special medical needs. Diabetes was one of the more common conditions, Steinmetz said.

But while they were happy to be safe, at least some guests fumed over conditions they said could do more to make things worse than help.

Ecstacy Blackwell, of Atlantic City, was especially upset about not being able to use the lavatories or showers, as were others.

Apparently after some problems early on, guests were shut out of them. They were relegated to going out to the outhouses placed just outside the doors to rinse themselves with damp cloths, Blackwell said.

They were also told they could use available hand sanitizer to wash themselves as well as they could, she said. She added organizers told them they’d bring “portoshowers” - a suggestion that also didn’t sit well with Blackwell and other guests who’d rather not try to take a shower during the nasty weather.

“We understand we’re in a crisis situation, but do they have to make things worse?” Blackwell posed.

A dinner buffet set up Friday evening also wasn’t well organized, she and another woman said. There was a kind of free-for-all rush to the food, they explained, and many were left with no choice except maybe pork and beans and rice.

Several guests complained the air conditioning had been turned off. The gym was stuffy close to noon Saturday, and the number of bodies in close quarters didn’t help.

That, in turn, didn’t help asthmatic guests, said Blackwell. She added she’s glad she brought her own blanket, because the those given out are wool, to which she’s allergic.

Dave Bowden, also of Atlantic City, took quite a different approach.

“I think overall, it’s been OK,” he said, granted organizers were trying to accommodate more than 1,000 people in an emergency.

“I think people should be thankful they’re here,” he added. Ironically, however, Bowden had been pretty dead set against coming to a shelter.

“If I had it my way, I would have tried to ride the hurricane out,” he explained. But he was made to evacuate his apartment.

“They picked us up in Atlantic City and took us here by bus,” said the retired former casino employee. “It reminded me of my camp days.”